


the sea, the sea in the darkness calls

by blackkat



Series: Horoscope Drabbles [14]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, M/M, slight suicidal thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-02 16:06:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17267192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/pseuds/blackkat
Summary: He lets the mask fall, and it shatters on the floor.





	the sea, the sea in the darkness calls

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Normal Horoscopes on Tumblr:
> 
> Leo: A tomb built into the underside of a waterfall. A thousand tiny rivers that run through the necropolis. Souls taken down through the waters of life, to pool in the ocean of the afterlife.

He lets the mask fall, and it shatters on the floor.

Kakashi doesn’t look back, doesn’t pause his stumbling steps. There's an ache in his bones, a fuzzy distance in his head, and the roar of the waterfall behind him isn't helping. It’s hard enough to pick his feet up, to not fall flat on his face when his foot sinks into a thin stream running across the floor of the temple.

The water is bracingly cold, drags a gasp from him as he hurriedly jerks his feet out, catches himself on a pillar of stone. The world swims, and he shakes his head like a dog, not sure if he’s trying to get rid of the spray from the waterfall or the ringing that blood loss has brought on. All he wants is a safe place to die, where no one will find his body, take his eye. Obito's eye shouldn’t be a prize for Kumo to claim.

This place, though—this place is strange. Bright, lit by a glow that seems to have no source, and eerily perfect even though Kakashi can't see any signs of other life. Not even animals have been in here, and he wonders with a touch of grim humor whether his ninken will even be able to find him, once Pakkun gets back from leading Shisui's team to safety. Probably not; the waterfall will cover the scent, and Kakashi took care to hide his trail from the Kumo forces.

He wonders what it says about him, that all he feels at the thought of dying in this war is relief.

As he staggers onward, deeper into the temple, his tantō slips from nerveless fingers, clatters loud against the ground, but Kakashi shakes his head to banish the sound, keeps moving even though he’s not entirely sure why. The streams that flow across the floor are leading somewhere, though, and even if Kakashi’s never been much of one for curiosity, he wants to know where they lead.

The answer is a pool, green-blue and almost glowing in a shaft of golden sunlight that stretches from one edge to the other and no further. Even Kakashi, drenched in blood and on his last legs, can tell it’s something beautiful, something sacred. The lip of the pool is jade, marbled with streaks of white, but if there's a bottom Kakashi can't see it; the water stretches down, down, down, never changing from that luminescent blue. Each of the smaller streams feeds it, but the water doesn’t seem to be moving, as still as glass on the surface.

It’s a draw, even though it shouldn’t be. Kakashi has better sense than to go sticking his head in strange bottomless chasms, even if they're pretty. It feels like there's an anchor in his chest, though, and the chain is pulling him forward, right to the edge of the pool. He stages as he reaches it, falls to his knees, and it’s so _close_. If he reaches out, if he _touches_ —

Footsteps, soft but ringing in the silence of the necropolis. Kakashi flinches, tries to throw himself to his feet, but his body won't listen. All he manages is a sickening lurch, has to catch himself on the lip of the pool—

“Easy,” a voice, all low, deep amusement, and a hand catches his shoulder, eases him back until he’s sitting on the floor, no longer in danger of falling headlong into the water. Then the man is stepping past him, up onto the edge, and Kakashi jerks his head up to look at him, looks up, _up_.

The man grins back, shark teeth in blue skin, arms full of Kumo shinobi. The kunoichi is gasping for breath, ragged and bubbling, and Kakashi can recognize the sound of a punctured lung. But—there's something wrong. Something _different_. She’s pale around the edges, ghostly, like she’s trapped in a blanket of fog.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” the shark-skinned man says to Kakashi, and cradles the woman in his arms, then steps off the edge.

There's no splash. There's hardly a ripple. Kakashi leans forward, unable to help himself, and only catches the ripple of a shadow descending, already so far down it’s practically out of sight. He counts, because there's nothing else to do, and—

When the man reemerges from the pool, six full minutes later, his arms are empty.

Dripping water, he sits on the edge of the pool, watching Kakashi with interest and amusement in equal measure. Chuckles, low and warm, and says cheerfuly, “It’s not every day one of my guests actually comes to find me on their own.”

He isn't supposed to be here, Kakashi knows. He’s known it since the moment he looked at the waterfall and thought about hiding behind it. Distantly, he recognizes that he should probably care about that.

“Sorry to intrude,” he says, and forces it to lightness. “I didn’t see a no trespassing sign, in my defense.”

Luminescent eyes stare at him, steady and unnervingly sharp. “I bet you didn’t,” the man says, almost gently, and shifts up. He crouches next to Kakashi, and Kakashi wants to tense, wants to jerk away from the hand that touches his bleeding torn gut, but he doesn’t have the energy. The man hums, thoughtful, and pulls his hand away to look at the blood staining his fingers.

“You’ve been trying to get here for a long time, haven’t you?” he asks, chuckling, and his hand is warm when he cups Kakashi’s cheek. “It’s not quite time yet, though.”

The ache of those words feels like grief, and Kakashi closes his eyes, breath shuddering out of him. “Please,” he says, and doesn’t even know what he’s asking for.

There's a long, long moment of silence, like the man is weighing choices. “No,” he finally says. “I can't give you what you want just yet, but—I can give you a reason to keep going. Make you one of mine, out in the world.”

Kakashi doesn’t know what he means, but—maybe some part of him does. “You're taking souls,” he says, hoarse.

The man chuckles, light and rumbling, like thunder on a clear day. “Fallen warriors,” he says. “The ocean keeps their souls. I just bring them through the caverns to their rest.”

“And you won't even give me that,” Kakashi says, and it comes out dry.

A big thumb brushes his cheek. “You can be my eyes,” he says, and the words are so familiar a laugh cracks from Kakashi’s throat. “And then, when you're done, we can swim together, forever.”

Kakashi already failed Obito, and then Rin. He’ll probably fail this man as well, and yet—

“All right,” he says, and lips touch his forehead, warm against the cold air.

“I'm Kisame,” the man says. “Just call me if you need me. I’ll hear you, sweetheart.”

Kakashi shivers, but—it’s not unpleasant. It’s _warm_ , deep in his chest, and his stomach isn't one knot of pain anymore. He breathes out, surprised to find he can, and slumps forward.

Kisame catches him, lifts him, and Kakashi remembers nothing more until he wakes in a hospital bed in Konoha, feeling like there's an ocean curled beneath his skin.


End file.
